First look at the Nikon D90

The Nikon D90 officially became available today. My local Best Buy got in only 3 and I managed to get the first one this morning.

The D90 is quite a bit larger & heavier than the D40x, but it’s still comfortable to carry.

Unlike the D40x, the D90 has an LCD screen on the top, where you can see most of the settings without having to turn on the display. The D90 has dedicated buttons for most settings such as white balance, ISO, AF mode, etc, so you don’t have to access the menus too often.

Unlike the D40x, the D90 has an internal AF motor, so autofocus will work on non AF-S lenses, such as my 50mm/f1.8. That alone is almost worth the price for me. I found the lens contacts to be a bit tricky, though. I had to jiggle the lens slightly from the fully locked position until I felt the AF screw snap into place before AF would work.

I didn’t get to try all of the features yet, but I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen so far. Using auto mode, it take beautiful, sharp photos. Recording video is very easy. No dedicated video mode is needed. Simply switch to live view (using the Lv button to the right of the screen) and press the OK button to start recording. Press the OK button again to stop recording. Movies are saved as AVI files with a default size of 640×428.

Keep reading for unboxing photos, sample images and a sample video.

Here’s a sample video:

These pictures show the sharpness & detail.

You can see the full unboxing gallery here.